#chicken brooder

[silver-grove-homesteading]

Here we have 22, 4 week old chicks who currently don’t like me. I want them to be friendly girls who will come up to you. I know you need to bond with them, but I didn’t feet it was right to take them out of their brooder for more then a moment or two. Hopefully I will be able to bond with them more when they move outside in 2 weeks. They will also have a huge 12’x8’x8’ coop. I am not quite sure how big their run will be but it will be a decent size as well.

[homeofhousechickens]

All the babies are doing great even little Zinger. I was worried they wouldnt make it but they didnt even seem cold when the storm hit. It really seems like they just werent having a good time on the flockparty feed. Mannapro makes flockparty so its strange that the normal feed isnt causing problems likely just ingredients quality discrepancies

[homeofhousechickens]

Whenever running a brooder with multi age groups its important to monitor for bullying behavior. For me i have two food bowl constantly full of chick feed to minimize potential bullying then i also supervise when i feed a third bowl of mash daily, always making sure the youngest get fat crops first before letting everyone share. My older chicks are very gentle with the little ones and beyond Twinkies small beak scrape in the beginning there hasnt been any issues.

In the first pic is Zinger the youngest and smallest next to Angel the oldest and biggest for some reason some of my chicks (like Zinger) are not thriving on this feed so ill be switching to medicated mannapro feed and will likely get some chick kibble as well. Right now im feeding Flockpartys chick starter which usually i like because it uses an insect based protein but i feel like the quailty has went down.

In these situations its also important to keep the brooder clean to prevent potential cocciodosis outbreaks as the older chicks will have more immunity then the younger ones.

[homeofhousechickens]

Baby time

[homeofhousechickens]

Brooder making tip. If you dislike the sharp edges of hardware cloth or whatever other mesh you use. You can use a glue gun to cover the edges and make them safe.

(Yes i know my window is lopsided, leave me alone! If it works it works!)

[silver-grove-homesteading]

My homemade chicken brooder.

[wells-creative]

Long post warning!

March 29, 2023

Continuing the "Crazy Chicken Lady" metamorphosis...... Now I needed a brooder. (For those that don't know, a brooder is a comfy little chicken home that keeps baby chickens safe and warm until they are ready to go into a larger enclosure or free range)

My husband got this shipping crate from his work place (they were going to trash it) and I had a vision. It was going to be my brooder for the cost of almost nothing. But first we had to give it a makeover.

We cut out holes in the bottom and short sides so they would have good ventilation.

Then we added legs and bracers around those for sturdiness.

We used all scrap wood for this project so don't expect anything too pretty.

Then we added hardware cloth to the openings we had previously created. this is a small 1/4" hole hardware cloth so predators like snakes have no chance of squeezing through. We used staples to secure it down.

We re-attached the lid using some hinges we had laying around and my husband made a little door prop out of a welding rod and she was finished. All it needed then was a thorough cleaning and a heat lamp.

At this point i have raised hundreds of chicks in this brooder and it has kept chicks alive through rainstorms and freezing temps. I do tarp it for rough weather if it is cold though just so they have that extra protection. Otherwise it is a wonderful low cost, low maintanence chick brooder.

Find below links to products I used on this project. (These are affiliate links and will earn me a small commision but will cost nothing extra for anyone that purchases a product using these links.)

Kobalt impact driver.

Hammer

Jigsaw

1/2” Staples

Hardware cloth

3” wood screws

Heat lamp (for the birbs)

Heat Bulb

And please check out my Ko-fi!

[ezilis-respite-farm-sanctuary]

Week 5 with the chickens = y'all need to get yr tiny pullets out to the coop!

most of the day has just the radiant heat plate on low if not off, screened window open with a fan on low to maintain 70 degrees.

we have perchers and curious escapees. she seemed none too concerned about the lack of brooder heat.

Favs are cold happy - Doms wanna cuddle.

Khonsu X